Woman’s body found after alligator attack

The body of a Florida woman who went missing Friday was found just hours after some of her remains were discovered inside an alligator, officials said Saturday.

Shizuka Matsuki, 47, of Plantation was last seen walking her dogs near a lake in the Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park in Davie, about 25 miles north of Miami, on Friday morning, the Davie Police Department said.

A man saw her walking her dogs there and minutes later saw the dogs running loose, one of them injured, local ABC affiliate WPLG reported.

The man “went to the area where he thought that they had been walking, and he immediately spotted an alligator,” Detective Viviana Gallinal said.

A 12-foot, 6-inch alligator was removed from the lake Friday afternoon, and officials performed a necropsy, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement. A commission spokesman said the agency had found human remains inside the reptile. The same day, officials identified Matsuki as the victim.

Citing anonymous sources, local news outlets reported that an arm was found in the alligator. Matsuki’s brother identified it by its distinctive tattoo, according to WSVN, a Fox affiliate.

Search teams found Matsuki’s body at the lake later Friday.

A police spokesman declined to comment Saturday. A spokeswoman from the wildlife commission did not respond to phone messages.

“We would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Shizuka Matsuki,” the commission said in a statement on Twitter.

There are an estimated 1.3 million alligators in Florida. They live in each of the state’s 67 counties and can be found in nearly all its fresh and brackish water bodies. But attacks are rare.

The likelihood of a Florida resident being seriously injured during an unprovoked alligator attack is about 1-in-3.2 million, the commission said on its website.

There have been 401 unprovoked alligator bites between 1948 and 2017, the commission said. Twenty-four resulted in fatalities.

The most recent death happened in 2016, when a 2-year-old boy was snatched by an alligator while playing in a lagoon at a Disney resort.

Davie Police Department / Tribune News Service This is the 12-foot-6-inch alligator trapped Friday and found with a woman’s arm inside of it at Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park in Davie, Fla.